Google is taking Elon Musk’s space data center idea seriously

Elon Musk has long proselytized about the potential of space-based data centers. But as of today, he’s no longer alone in touting the idea of sending the hardware that powers AI into orbit.

Google is launching a test satellite as part of Project Suncatcher, its effort to eventually put data centers in space. The satellite will hitch a ride aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Musk’s SpaceX.

Musk’s pronouncements about orbiting data centers have often been met with skepticism. Google’s arrival in the race suggests there may be a real opportunity behind the idea.

“The costs of data centers on Earth are rising, while the costs of data centers in space will fall, and at some point those curves will cross,” says Matthew Weinzierl, the author of Space to Grow, a book on the economics of space. “We don’t know when, but the big investments by Google, SpaceX and the like are intended to bring that day closer.”

Weinzierl says the companies’ efforts are “perhaps the best example we have yet of the power of market forces to drive innovation in space.”

Still, there’s a significant difference between getting a few chips into orbit and operating an entire data center there. This week’s launch is meant to establish whether the hardware Google hopes to use can withstand the extreme environment of space. Two more satellites are planned for 2027 to test the laser links needed to connect them.

Those laser connections are one of the biggest challenges facing any space-based data center, says Juan A. Fraire, a researcher at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, who studies orbital data centers. Google has demonstrated 800 Gbps connections between optical transceivers in the lab, but reaching those speeds in orbit requires satellites to fly extraordinarily close together in an already crowded environment.

Keeping satellites close while avoiding collisions requires precise maneuvers that burn propellant, which can’t simply be replenished and could shorten their operational lives. Spreading the satellites farther apart eases that problem but reduces the speed at which they can communicate.

Then there’s cooling, a familiar problem for terrestrial data centers that becomes much harder in space. Without air to carry heat away, conventional cooling systems won’t work. Any alternative adds weight, increasing launch costs. Google’s current experimental system allows its chips to operate for around 15 minutes before they need to cool down.

There are environmental tradeoffs, too. Companies promoting orbital computing tout the benefits of near-constant solar power, but Fraire says that overlooks emissions from launching satellites and their eventual reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. His research suggests orbital data centers would need to operate for around five to six years to match the emissions profile of greener terrestrial facilities.

And if companies eventually deploy the enormous constellations they envision, they could create another problem: congestion in the limited orbital regions that receive the most sunlight. Fraire says collision risks from space debris, along with threats from solar storms, also need to be considered.

For now, Google’s launch is just a test. But it may be an early sign of a broader shift toward space-based data centers. Fraire believes the technology could work, and that falling launch costs may eventually make it commercially viable.

“I think we need to think before we act,” he says. “And so far, we see the industry not thinking so much, but just acting.”

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